The ultimate memory challenge – opening endless Chrome browser tabs

Take a shiny new Mac Pro, loaded up with a staggering 1.5TB of system RAM – how does one push such a machine to its limits? Forget the standard stress tests or heavyweight benchmarking utilities – what you would like to try to do is open a shed-load of Chrome tabs.

How many such browser tabs can a memory-stuffed Mac Pro 2019 handle? That’s what Jonathan Morrison began to get during a YouTube video (Morrison may be a prominent Apple tech reviewer on YouTube, and one among only a few sent an early Mac Pro to play with).

_________ It seems that Morrison managed to launch 6,000 tabs in Chrome – not just blank tabs, but actually running a spread of proper sites (opened via a script) – which consumed most of the PC’s system memory, with overall RAM usage peaking at 1.49TB.

Apple’s victory was within the incontrovertible fact that the Mac Pro (and macOS) didn’t go over when pulling off this feat, and continued to run normally; actually, it had been still ready to smoothly multitask between a couple of other apps which were running at an equivalent time.

TKO

Although an equivalent couldn’t be said of Google’s browser. With 6,000 tabs open, one among the Chrome processes became unresponsive. While the browser didn’t actually crash, it appeared to stall, and when Morrison force quit that unresponsive process, every instance of the Chrome closed. And unsurprisingly, on reopening, Chrome didn't restore all the tabs successfully (or indeed any of them).

_________ Morrison observed that round the 5,000 tabs mark, the machine ran just fine, and he could freely switch between all the various tabs smoothly.

So at the top of this memory grudge match, the winner – by a TKO, perhaps – was the mighty Mac Pro.

Morrison says that he might repeat the experiment with other browsers like Firefox, or indeed Safari, so we'd see other similar videos within the future, which could bring interesting comparisons.




source:

Rumors suggest a showing at WWDC 2019

It appears that Apple is planning to release a modular Mac Pro 2019 at its WWDC 2019 conference in June this year.

The rumors stem from a report by Bloomberg, which also revealed the possibility of iPad-to-Mac app conversion tools.

• The best workstations of 2019
• Want to work on the road? Check out our best mobile workstations guide
• Turn your Mac Pro with our guide on how to use an eGPU with a Mac

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Apple has “internally weighed previewing a new version of the high-end Mac Pro” at its Worldwide Developers Conference, however, no decision has yet been made.

While Apple has talked up its commitment to a new Mac Pro in the past and has confirmed that the release date will be sometime in 2019, information about the high-end Mac has otherwise been thin on the ground.

Making it modular

A modular Mac Pro could allow users to easily upgrade their device over the years, so they end up with a future-proof computer that is configured to their needs and budget.

This is something that most PC owners enjoy, but Apple’s products are notoriously difficult to upgrade and fix at home.

We’ve also seen Apple take a vaguely modular approach to the new Mac mini by introducing a feature that allows you to connect up a number of Mac minis to create a single, more powerful, device.

For fans of the Mac Pro who want a high-end Mac and have been concerned about Apple’s reluctance to firmly commit to the professionally-orientated lineup, the news that the company is apparently at least considering showing off the Mac Pro 2019 at WWDC 2019 in June will come as a relief.



READ MORE:

Apple started talking about a new Mac Pro last year. Now it's talking about a 2019 release date.

1. Maybe Apple thought that the iMac Pro would be enough, and professionals would stop hassling about a new Mac Pro.
   
2. Perhaps Apple doesn't want to cannibalize iMac Pro sales or is using this as a canary to test the market.
   
3. Maybe the delay has something to do with the rumor that Apple is planning to dump Intel and switch to its own chips. I mean, it would be odd for Apple to start selling a new Mac Pro only to then switch to different chips (especially given the lifespan of pro gear).
   
4. Maybe Apple is working on something truly new and ground-breaking, and that needs time to bake (but how radical can a workstation be?).
   
5. Maybe this is a "hobby" project over at Apple, and it's having to fit around the big money-makers. Sure, pro-grade Apple hardware is expensive, but it's a drop in the ocean compared to the iPhone (the launch of the iMac Pro didn't even blip the revenue needle for Mac sales following its release).
   
6. Whatever Apple has planned for us, we'll have to wait until next year to find out what it is, and longer still to find out what the professionals who rely on Apple hardware actually think of it.